Gossamer

in a small hotel off Fifth Avenue, half way between the streets which boast of numbers hig

s irregular as those of London or Paris, and have all sorts of fascinatingly suggestive names. My hotel stands in the debatable land between the two districts. Fashionable life is ebbing away from its neighbourhood. Business is, as yet, a little shy of invading it. The situation makes an appeal to me. I may be, as Gorman says, a man of no country, but I am a man of two worlds. I cling to the skirts of society, something of an outsider, yet one who has the

n on me at breakfast time on the second morning after our arrival. I was eating an omelette at the time. I offered him a share of it and a cup of coffee. Gorman refused both; but he helped himself to a glass of iced water. This shows how adaptable Gorman is. Hardly any European can drink i

me? Ascher has promised to come. We're going to a circus and on for supp

calls "a racket" occasionally. What surprised me was that a circus should be his idea of dissipation. A circus is the sort of entertainment to which I send my nephew-a boy of eleven-when he spends the night with me in London on

a good show,

k of a galloping horse. I had not been at a circus for about thirty years, since my tenth birthday indeed, but I do not believe that the form of entertainment has changed much since then. The clow

ses for the best s

sitation. I was not thinking of th

the front row every time without paying, whether it's a

emember him at Curraghbeg. He was fifteen years younger than me.

could not be expected to remember Tim who must have

amily," said Gorman. "His mo

than that about his step-mother, and y

m of his property. It took ability to do that. You are a Member of Parliament and a bri

own it," s

xpect it takes more brains to

ut he has brains. That's why I want Ascher to meet him. I didn't ask Mrs. Ascher," he add

nother for myself in a cheap part of the house, and join you

way. She's a charming woman, of course, though she

ing religion with her, surely. I didn't think you

life. Nothing would induce me to. For

Catholic yours

hat's nothing to do with it. Mrs. Ascher doesn't talk about her soul in a religious way. In fact-I don't know

t their souls and even talk of saving or losing them. But they do not mean what one of Gorman's pries

hers in Ireland. We only go in for

an s

them about her," he said. "They're

ght to invite Mrs. Ascher to your

er time. I'll take her to a conce

ind that. Mrs. Ascher isn't exactly a girl. It would take a lot to shock her. In fact, Gorman, my exp

seems to thrive best when heavily manured. It is no disparagement of the artistic soul to say that it likes manure. Some of the most delicious and beautiful things in the world are like that, raspberri

r occur to you that Mrs. Asch

uld possibly object to it. The reason I headed her off was because I wanted to talk business to Ascher, very particular busin

"I should think you could rope him into anything else wit

you keep interrupting me with

a pity you wouldn't listen. You'd have liked the pa

at it ever since he was a boy. But they're mostly quite useless things though as cute as the devil.

er," I said, "what

d in shops and chea

riter. That's all right. I thought for a moment

ever seen. There's simply no comparison between it and the exist

, to see what Ascher

to patent it, I

ecure in Europe and America. He had done more, he had formed a small private company in which he held most of t

al. You want to work the thing on a big scale. I might take

t want to have to divide the profits with a whole townful of people. But we mig

it justifies itself pretty well in Ireland. In that country you can get nearly anything done, either good or bad, if you persuade a sufficiently influential person to recommend it. Gorman's mistake, as it seemed to me, lay in supposing that influence is equally potent outside Ireland. I am convinced that it is no use a

"he'll do it on a pretty big scale.

him to do is to back us. Of course he'll get his whack of whatever we make, and if he likes to be the nominal owne

ipe and sat down opposite to me. I am not, I regret to say, a busine

cash register in the world. In the long run nothing could stand against it. Of that Gorman was perfec

e this. Evidently their struggles we

"If your machine is much b

ys do on these occasions. Th

the l

e case would be appealed to a higher court. That would happen here and in England and in France and in every country in the

onsequence of your own succ

n, "you see where

firm's money fighting speculative law su

behind us no one will attempt to touch our patent. People aren't such fools as to start playing beggar-my-neighbour with Ascher,

I said, "that we sha

at the expense of lawyers is sure of a smile under any circumstances. With the possible exception of the mot

id Gorman. "They'll go straight to he

ional men, quite upright and honourable compared to doctors. I should have liked to argue the point with Gorman. But

tents are safe, you'll want to begin making machines

ny day with a better machine and knock ours out. People are always inventing things, you know. What I want is a nice large sum of hard cash without any bother or risk. Don't you see that the other people, the owners of the present cash registers, will have to buy us out? If our

ked to me like a modernis

of thing com

," said Gorman.

u say about your brother's invention is true the world will get the benefit of a

once they've paid us. But it will cost them hundreds of thousands if they do. They'd have to scrap all their existing plant and turn their factories inside out, and in the end

n for the old-fashioned kind of soul, the kind we were both brought up to. I'm

ng about begonias

nothing happens and grimy women say indecent things-that's art you

will crush us if they can. If they can't, and they won't be able to if Ascher backs us, they'll have to

aid. "But you don't p

, form a company to use the rights. It suits us better for various reasons to sell it to these people. It suits them to buy. They needn't un

al, religious kind, the artistic kind, and what we may call the

me this. Are you going to help to rope in Ascher or

rse I'm going to help. Haven't yo

d Gorman triumphantly. "Bu

t got one

gentry in that country and the few surviving individuals have learned that honour is a silly superstition. I am now a disinterested spectator of a game which my ancestors played and lost. The virtue desirable in a spectator is not honour but curiosity.